The Friends of New Germany, an organization which in the past has shown little liking for the Jews and less respect, listened attentively at its weekly meeting at the Yorkville Casino to Otto Mautner, self-described German Jew, who was the principal speaker of the evening.
After Mautner had concluded an impassioned address, the Friends applauded him vociferously and he joined them in the “Heil Hitler” salute.
Mautner was a Nazi “exhibit” that all reports concerning dismissal of German Jews from their jobs in the Reich are only “atrocity propaganda.”
He was introduced as a steward on the Bremen, who had previously made seventy trips on the Europa and two on the former liner. He was also described as leader of a “German-Jewish Nationalist movement,” said to be affiliated with but not part of Dr. Naumann’s Nationalist organization.
Mautner declared in his address that his “organization” had 8,000 members whose slogan is “The country before our faith, our religion, our race.”
German Jews will settle their difficulties in their own way, Mautner told the Nazis at the meeting, without the aid of “foreign Jews.” Their plight, he told the Nazis at the meeting, is none of the world’s business, but their own.
“We Jews will settle our problems in our own way,” he asserted. “It is not a world problem. The boycott is hurting German Jews more than anyone else.”
Turning rhetorically to the world at large, the statesman-steward shouted: “Keep your hands off, you foreign Jews! You did more harm than good.”
Mautner is slated to speak at further meetings of the Friends and at their political rallies whenever his boat is in the port.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
